President Irfaan Ali on Friday warned that accountants who engage in public policy debates while advancing political agendas risk undermining public trust in the profession, urging practitioners across the Caribbean to clearly distinguish between professional advice and political advocacy.
Addressing more than 300 delegates at the Annual Caribbean Conference of Accountants (ICAC) in Guyana, Ali said accounting professionals who offer opinions influenced by political interests should openly declare those affiliations, noting that failure to do so could amount to a breach of professional ethics.
“Accountants in this profession and this body have to decide when you become a politician and make it clear that I’m no longer an accountant, I’m now a politician, because you put the entire profession at risk,” Ali said. He added that when professionals provide analyses through the lens of a political narrative rather than objective professional judgment, they compromise the trust placed in the profession.
“If your view is a view from the lens of satisfying a political narrative or satisfying an objective, then that should be declared,” the President said, adding, “Because of the level of trust this profession carries, I think that should be declared.”
The conference brought together accounting professionals, business leaders and government representatives from across the Caribbean to discuss the future of the profession and its role in addressing regional challenges.
Ali challenged the professionals to develop a market-based framework for monetising biodiversity and climate services, arguing that the region can no longer afford to overlook opportunities to create new sources of wealth and financial sustainability.
“We are definitely the most impacted and affected when it comes to climate change,” he said. “A body like this with such great minds must be able to develop a model, a monetised market-based model that can be shared at heads of government meeting.”
He urged them to develop frameworks that would assign monetary value to environmental protection, biodiversity preservation and climate-related services, creating new markets and financing opportunities for Caribbean countries.
The President shared that professional bodies such as ICAC should move beyond traditional accounting discussions and position themselves as facilitators of business, financing and public policy solutions for the region. He also disclosed that Guyana is exploring the creation of a diaspora bond and other investment vehicles that would allow ordinary citizens to participate more directly in major business ventures and national development projects.
“Looking here in Guyana, we are now looking at a diaspora bond. We are looking at creating investment vehicle through which you will have greater participation of the ordinary person from Guyana in huge business initiative,” he said, adding that he hoped similar mechanisms could eventually be expanded regionally.
Ali said the Caribbean’s substantial liquidity, including funds held by pension schemes, could become a sustainability challenge if governments and institutions fail to identify productive avenues for investment. He challenged conference participants to generate practical solutions to regional problems and present them to Caribbean heads of government.
He also called for reforms to accounting education throughout the Caribbean, noting that universities must adapt their programmes to align with the changing demands of the profession. He praised the University of Guyana’s partnership with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), which allows students to receive exemptions from up to nine ACCA examinations, but stressed that tertiary institutions could no longer afford to remain inward-looking.
Ali further questioned why Caribbean nations, despite producing oil for more than a century, have failed to establish a regional oil trading company. He further said that regional professional bodies should play a more active role in identifying and creating new economic opportunities, including frameworks for financial inclusion and regional investment, rather than focusing solely on traditional accounting functions.
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